Man Hammers Woman's Head, Stabs Her With Samurai Sword; Buries Her Under Kitchen Floor

A 52-year-old British man who admitted to killing a mother and her baby daughter has been sentenced to life in prison.

Edinburgh High Court has ordered Andrew Innes to be jailed for life over the deaths of Bennylyn Burke, who moved to the United Kingdom from the Philippines in 2019, and her 2-year-old daughter, Jellica Burke, the BBC reported.

He must serve a minimum of 36 years before he can apply for parole.

Innes lured Bennylyn to his Dundee home after he targeted her through a dating website in February 2021.

There, Innes repeatedly hit Bennylyn in the head with a hammer and stabbed her with a samurai sword that was retrieved from his office.

Innes, who was "apocalyptically angry" at the time he killed Bennylyn, thought the victim looked like a hybrid of his estranged wife and jilted lover, the Daily Mail reported.

He then strangled Jellica, who died of asphyxiation, the court heard.

Innes reportedly put both bodies in rubble bags and concealed them in concrete beneath his floor.

While Innes initially claimed to have driven the victims and left them with another man, he later admitted to the killings after repeated questioning,

Innes also stated he acted in self-defense because Bennylyn lunged at him with a sushi knife, but he later stated that was not true as well.

He denied the murders and submitted a defense of lacking criminal responsibility and diminished responsibility, blaming the attack on steroid-induced psychosis, the Evening Standard reported.

However, forensic psychologist Dr. Gordon Cowan told the court he did not believe Innes was impaired when the killings happened.

Judge Lord Beckett ended up telling the jury that no evidence was presented during Innes' five-day trial to show that he had been suffering from mental impairment at the time of the murders.

The magistrate instructed the jury Monday to charge Innes guilty of murdering Bennylyn and her daughter.

The jury also found Innes guilty of sexually assaulting Jellica, raping another child and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

"In almost 30 years of policing, the depravity shown by Andrew Innes was beyond anything I or my colleagues had witnessed before," Detective Chief Inspector Graham Smith, the lead officer on the case, said.

"[Bennylyn] found the worst cruelty we could ever imagine at the hands of someone she trusted. We shall be forever haunted by what happened to her in this far-off place such a long way from us," her family said in a statement.